Month: July 2018

Creation Justice Ministries has created a free Christian education resource on water that includes liturgical resources, sermon starters, and ideas to take action. They believe that God provides all of creation with clean water for good reason and that this gift is to be rightly shared among all peoples and all creation. To read more or download the educational resource, click here.

Justice for Each Generation started with the landmark case, Juliana v. U.S., where twenty-one youth have filed a lawsuit against the United States government for its role in causing climate change and violating their right to life, liberty, and property, while also failing to protect essential public resources. They are calling for sermons from youth and adults of all faiths as a collective statement that sends a signal to the rest of society. To read more about the movement and the court case, click here.

Environmental leaders, activists and advocates gathered with Pope Francis for a two-day Vatican-organized conference with hopes to emerge with a shared vision for protecting our planet. The conference was inspired by the third anniversary of the Pope’s encyclical and was attended by political and religious leaders, scientists, economists and heads of civil society organizations. Inspired by the call for unity and action in the encyclical, UN Environment also introduced their Interfaith Rain-forest Initiative at the conference. To read more about the conference, click here.

The Church of England will divest its $16 billion fund from companies that are not aligning themselves with the goals of the Paris Agreement. The decision, which passed by a majority of 347 to 4 votes, states that the church will sell stakes in companies not taking steps towards climate goals by 2023. On its website, the Church of England said, “We believe that responding to climate change is an essential part of our responsibility to safeguard God’s creation. Our environmental campaign exists to enable the whole church to address—in faith, practice and mission—the issue of climate change.” To read more, click here.

Calvin DeWitt is a scientist, speaker, activist, and author of books like Earthwise: A Guide to Hopeful Creation Care (2011) and Song of a Scientists: The Harmony of a God-Soaked Creation (2012)in addition to countless articles. He is interested especially in the intersection of faith and action on the environmental crisis. With publications dating back to the 1960s, for decades DeWitt has been a force in creation care. He is also a founder of the Evangelical Environmental Network.

For more information on DeWitt’s publications and activism click here to be taken to his page at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Science at the University of Wisconsin.

To see a general overview of Simpler Living, Compassionate Life click here.

In this section (Worldviews: The Lens through Which We See): “Worldview as Inheritance” by Michael Schut (191-193); “Traditional Western View of Reality” by Duane Elgin (194-196); “Healing Ourselves and the Earth” by Shantilal Bhagat (196-199); “Sacred Cosmology and the Ecological Crisis” by Philip Sherrard (200-205)

This section looks at what false truths humanity has believed that led us to treat the earth so poorly. It highlights specific ways we understand the world, especially in the West, and explains why ideals like dualism have been toxic to our understanding of the world and our relationship to it. Sherrard closes the section that it is not just how we understand the world, but ourselves that has led to our complicity and action in ecological destruction. To save the world, we must come to understand that everything participates in the sacred.

To see a general overview of Simpler Living, Compassionate Life click here.

In this section (Theology in Support of Simplicity and Eco-Justice): “Some Notes from Belshaz’zar’s Feast” by Timothy Weiskel (161-174); “Creation’s Care and Keeping” by Calvin DeWitt (175-179); “The Discipline of Simplicity” by Richard J. Foster (180-190)

Each essay in this section looks to the Bible as a guide in response to the ecological crisis. Weiskel echos earlier sections that call out our idolatry to over-consumption and money. For those wanting an exclusively hopeful response to the environmental crisis, this article will be a disappointment. It honestly looks at the reality of our parasitic co-existence with the Earth and its inhabitants. It argues that the only way forward begins with a deconstruction of what we have always expected, so that we may build a new priority and understanding of our place in the world. It holds cautious hope, but also realizes that it might be too late.

DeWitt’s reflections provide a useful Biblical grounding. This may be especially beneficial for communities beginning their journey in creation care.

In the final article, simplicity is considered as a way of life that is both an inward and outward reality. It establishes the necessary connections between a state of mind and actions. It begins to close the circle of the arc of this book that began with the necessity of affirming the sacred nature of the experience of every living thing.

In my opinion, if you chose to only read one section of this book, pick this one. It captures the Biblical and faith inspired foundation of the movement toward simplicity and implicates those of us who are participants in a culture of over-consumption for the damage we’ve done to the gift we’ve been given.

To see a general overview of Simpler Living, Compassionate Life click here.

In this section (Simplicity is Nothing New: A Brief Historical Overview): “Introduction to the Politics of Simplicity” by Jerome Segal (141-144); “Epilogue” from The Simple Life by David Shi (144-148); “Simplicity Among the Saints” by Richard J. Foster (149-160)

While this section does not convict readers or give exact action recommendations, it does look back to ways that the Holy Spirit has inspired simplicity in the lives of Christians through the ages. Embracing the great cloud of witnesses, the authors in this section look to the good done in Christ’s name when simplicity was prioritized as a method. It seems in commitment to simplicity, love is able to be seen more clearly. While not incredibly intersectional, it does help to frame the 21st century pursuit of simplicity in American and Christian history.

To see a general overview of Simpler Living, Compassionate life click here.

In this section (Social Structures and the Politics of Simplicity): “Christian Existence in a World of Limits” by John B. Cobb Jr. (117-122); “Structural Changes” by Cecile Andres (123-130); “The Lifestyle of Christian Faithfulness” by William Gibson (131-140)

Previous sections have looked specifically at how food consumption impacts the global community and economy. This section turns to look at systems in society that perpetuate and encourage over-consumption; from theology to capitalism to advertising, authors call out ways in which we’ve built our world for destruction. It focuses not only on personal choices, but the necessity of engaged politics and policy.

Andrews outlines specific structural changes that could be made in society to bring the kingdom of God ever closer. Andrews and other authors in this section are under no delusion that these complex societal problems will be easy to fix. They point to our addiction to overconsumption as the primary source of difficulty in our creation of a more just economy and world.

The essays found here provoke an affluent middle class’s compliance in keeping the poor poor. The guilt of our addictions and choices must be confronted and surpassed. Only when this is accomplished is there hope for a future that affirms the life of all God’s children.

John B. Cobb is an American theologian working in ecology and creation care. The prolific author of more than fifty books has argued inside the church and the academy for faith inspired environmental action. He began writing on faith and environmentalism in the 1970s and has remained a prominent activist and theologian through his life. In 2014, Cobb’s accomplishments were celebrated when he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Cobb and his students put together an early Ecotheology book list, current through 1991. It can be found here. Cobb’s speeches and works can be found easily online, and his books can be found at many major retailers and your favorite independent bookstore. To be taken to his author page on Amazon click here.

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